News
Department of Biomedical Engineering

Three new engineering doctoral degree programs at RIT were approved by the New York State Department of Education and are focused on using multidisciplinary approaches to solving today’s global challenges.

Steven Day, a professor in Biomedical Engineering, received 337K from the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with Drexel University to research ventricular assist devices (VADs) for high-risk pediatric patients in outpatient settings.  

Researchers at RIT and the University of Rochester discovered an alternative to successfully purify biological particles to better understand how cells communicate with one another.

A team of RIT researchers will explore how tiny particles of plastic pollution are impacting Lake Ontario thanks to new funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The multidisciplinary group will examine how microplastics are transported and transformed in the lake, where they ultimately end up and what effects they have on the ecosystem.

Maria Romero-Creel ’17 (biomedical engineering) and Wendy Salamone ’10 (biotechnology) are just two of the people responsible for the analyzer database update launched by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics on April 14. The team is responsible for ensuring that calibrations, precision fluid information and analyzer settings for new assays like COVID-19 are properly entered and working for analyzers in the field.

Ke Du and Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, both faculty-researchers in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, worked with an international team to collaborate on the design of a next-generation miniature lab device that uses magnetic nano-beads to isolate minute bacterial particles that cause diseases. This new technology improves how clinicians isolate drug-resistant strains of bacterial infections and difficult-to-detect micro-particles such as those making up Ebola and coronaviruses.

Saler, a miniature donkey, received new, 3D-printed shoes this past weekend at Karen and Bob Pinkney’s Wychmere Farms in Ontario, N.Y.  RIT biomedical engineering students were among the unlikely team brought together to help the 9-month-old little donkey whose tendons did not develop properly in his front legs.

Biomedical engineering students Brandon Buscaglia and Marcus D’Aguiar are helping physicians see the invisible. The undergraduates developed a motorized stage and tracking prototype that works in conjunction with digital microscopes. The students’ ideas are being incorporated into a company’s tech offerings today, providing the potential to make an impact in health care applications tomorrow.

Ridding waterways of microplastics, delivering water to remote villages experiencing drought, and better ways to remove salt from water were just a few of the clean-water research projects recently presented by undergraduate students as part of RIT’s Grand Challenge Scholars program.

Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, professor of biomedical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, was named a Fellow in the inaugural cohort of the I Aspire Leadership Academy. This leadership program aims to help STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds attain leadership roles at colleges and universities.

The 28th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Aug. 1, is structured as a professional research conference. Research themes included everything from fundamental microbiology to the fine arts.

RIT’s genomics research capabilities have evolved significantly over the past year. The university has invested heavily in revamping and equipping its Genomics Research Lab Cluster. The overhauled genomics facilities will boost capabilities for researchers in multiple disciplines, including bioinformatics, biotechnology and environmental science.